NASA calls the report from National Research Council (NRC) "overly pessimistic"

The NRC report goes on to say that, "These precipitous decreases [in satellite fleet] warn of a coming crisis in Earth observations from space, in which our ability to observe and understand the Earth system will decline just as Earth observations are critically needed to underpin important decisions facing our nation and the world," according to a May report from the Academy's National Research Council. "Advances in weather forecast accuracy may slow or even reverse, and gaps in time series of climate and other critical Earth observations are almost certain to occur."